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The Lame Duck President

"As President Bush struggles to recover" from the "thrashing" his party took on election day, "his advisers are studying the Clinton and Reagan models for lessons to revive his presidency," says the Washington Post. "...[V]eterans of past administrations see patterns that offer hope even to badly weakened presidents such as Bush. Adversaries who assume that Bush has been permanently crippled by the Democratic takeover of Congress, they say, misunderstand the opportunities still available to him." For one thing, Bush might "be eager to veto Democratic spending bills."

As we've noted before, though, one area on which Bush's prospects have improved is on comprehensive immigration reform. The Boston Globe reports that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) and "other lawmakers are planning a broader meeting this week of about 12 leading senators from both parties" to discuss it. "They are hoping to have Congress vote on a final immigration bill by mid-2007... Though no specific proposals have been floated, the bill passed this year by the Senate is a likely starting point."

An in-depth look at Vice President Dick Cheney's career "suggests that the newly empowered Democrats in Congress should not expect the White House to cooperate when they demand classified information or attempt to exert oversight in areas such as domestic surveillance or the treatment of terrorism suspects," writes the Boston Globe.

He may be a lame duck, the New York Daily News says, but Bush âĨŖand his truest believers are about to launch their final campaign - an eye-popping, half-billion-dollar drive for the Bush presidential library. Eager to begin refurbishing his tattered legacy, the President hopes to raise $500 million to build his library and a think tank at Southern Methodist University.âĨŗ More: âĨŖThe legacy-polishing centerpiece is an institute, which several Bush insiders called the Institute for Democracy... Bush's institute will hire conservative scholars and âĨ∼give them money to write papers and books favorable to the President's policies,âĨœ one Bush insider said.âĨŗ

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court will consider whether "the Clean Air Act requires the Bush administration to do something about global warming."